<p>I'm a college freshman at College of Charleston looking to transfer somewhere into a fashion merchandising program (or something like it). </p>
<p>I'm currently looking at:
Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)</p>
<p>FIT (Obviously)</p>
<p>Parsons- Don't know much about their design and management program- can anyone fill me in?</p>
<p>Laboratory Institute of Merchandising - Is this a good school? I want something that will get me places...</p>
<p>University of Delaware- It's too late to apply for fall '10, but is it worth applying for spring?</p>
<p>university of michigan- I like the idea that it's a real college-college feel, you know? Is the program good?</p>
<p>Columbia College of Chicago - is this a good school?</p>
<p>I could use all the help I can get!
I currently have a 3.1 GPA and have taken a bunch of humanities courses before deciding that I should just go with my gut and follow the fashion path, even though I really love charleston.</p>
<p>Wisconsin is still taking transfers and offers a full program including time at FIT for those wanting fashion design training. Plus a great college lifestyle experience.
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<p>If you’re serious about fashion New York is the best place to be because of the access to internships and direct exposure to the industry. Both FIT and Parsons place a lot of grads in the business. Parson tends to be more design driven. Individual design studios favor alums from the same college – it’s pretty much equal FIT and Parsons.</p>
<p>I’d also take a look at RISD.</p>
<p>I think the Wisconsin programs look really interesting. That way you cover both bases – a liberal arts degree and a year at FIT. I would ask what kind of internship and summer jobs they can connect you to. </p>
<p>I wasn’t aware that the University of Michigan had a fashion program. Could you please provide a link?</p>
<p>The key to success in retail or fashion merchandising is just to start at the bottom and work your way up. Talent, taste level and hard work are essential but so are understanding the dynamics of the brand and simply being there.</p>
<p>It’s good you know what you want, but to be honest, anything that has to do with the fashion business side, you can learn on the job through internships and jobs. Those internships and jobs will lead to connections and more connections. Simply browsing a major city’s craigslist, like LA and NYC, you’re bound to see internships(without pay, like most of the fashion industry internships) posted looking for interns. That’s how you get in the door.
If you’re interested in Visuals, you can get that experience by simply approaching high end retail stores and asking them if you could intern with them. I used to do this when I was interested in the fashion industry, and I got the experience. Once you get the experience in whatever field of fashion you want to work in, the last thing they’ll be looking at when they hire you is where you attended school. The only thing that you’d actually benefit from attending a school like FIT/Parsons etc is the connections. However connections aren’t thrown at you, you still have to go out and search for them from your school’s resources and network network network. Once you land your first internship, even if it’s in a showroom doing bs work, you’ll have that on your resume and will make you more qualified for other showroom jobs. Based on your performance some showrooms might bump you up to sales assistants, then maybe sales reps. Once you’re a sales rep, you have a career in sales. In retail, the same thing. If you start working in retail doing sales, and are really good, you might get promoted to higher positions,and finally into management.
Visuals is a lot tougher because generally speaking there aren’t as many “Visuals” jobs as there might be other types of jobs in other areas of fashion. But with visuals, you intern and build up a long history in visuals slowly and slowly, once you have that experience and a portfolio you might be able to land a job as you being the head visuals person for a store or area of stores.
The only reason one might consider going to fashion schools is to gain technical skills,a nd that applies to jobs like patternmaking, designing, etc. Otherwise a lot of the business side of fashion can and will be learned primarily on the job. If I were you, I’d either move to a major city and finish your degree in whatever you want, be it business(not specifically in fashion, but it can be if you want and can afford schools like Parsons-without taking out a lot in loans) or something in the liberal arts. When you’re in a large city you can acquire that fashion business experience through internships and work experience.</p>
<p>You can say the same about many jobs out there but getting some education in the field will eliminate much of the door-knocking trying to get a first paying job and give you some skills it might take 5 years to learn on the job. Some advantages of a good program:</p>
<p>“We are taking 30 students from around campus to Hong Kong and Shanghai over Spring Break for a 1 credit course on international retailing. Thank you to Kohl’s Department Stores for making this trip possible!!”</p>
<p>For a non-design job in retail or apparel, I would choose a liberal arts education over a design school. The kind of skills you will need – communication, analysis, teamwork – are inherent in the bachelor of arts or science program. Big corporations – retailers and brands – like college degrees!</p>
<p>As I said the Wisconsin program sounds really good, but if you don’t want to go to school in the midwest then take a look at some of the eastcoast colleges and universities that offer fashion or merchandising degrees. Skidmore is good as are some of the SUNYs. </p>
<p>The important thing is to use your summers productively which is where the schools come in. Those with strong programs have strong placement abilities.</p>
<p>There are several directions that you can take within retail or brand management that are not design/creative positions. It really helps to be inside a company to understand what your options are. It’s a complex industry and every company is set up a little differently but basically you can choose among buying, selling, sourcing, developing. All of these areas overlap somewhat.</p>
<p>At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what you major in. I interact with managers with a wide range of educational experience – law, engineering, botany, philosophy and of course business and fashion merchandising. </p>
<p>Get a degree and get your foot in the door.</p>
<p>^^Entry level jobs in the fashion industry are not like entry level jobs in other fields. Just because you attend “fashion school” does not mean employers in the fashion industry will hire you straight out of fashion school with just a degree in fashion. The fashion industry is extremely competitive filled with young people willing to do administrative, filing, bs work for free(even full time)-even the skilled jobs like designing, patternmaking, etc. Coming out of fashion school, even the top ones, you’re salary will be close to that of a high school graduate who works in other fields, and that’s that you better be good at selling yourself in the interview by showing experience and interest.<br>
In the fashion industry, experience is key. You gain that experience by interning interning and interning. Not just in the summers.
The only benefit for fashion school is the connections, but those connections can be easily be made from being a social butterfly(something you’ll need to be in the fashion industry regardless if you attend fashion school or not). Craigslist intern positions, or “knocking on doors” is an alternative to those fashion school connections.
I think getting a solid liberal arts education, or having a more general technical/practical major like Marketing or Business will serve to be more flexible if one decides to change industries later on life.</p>